November 22, 2014

My friend and Master woodcarver and turner Richard McDonald picked this wheel up at a local flea market. It is in excellent condition and appears to have never been finished, it is ‘in the white’.

All that was missing was the distaff and the pitman (footman) needed to be replaced. I designed the new distaff and pitman from turning details on the original, Richard turned the pieces and I assembled the parts.

I got very little spring back or recovery from the bent dowels.

The ribs are 1/8″ diameter birch dowels, the rest of the wheel is also made of birch. I made a bending jig, boiled the 5 dowels, hoping to get 4 good ones in boiling water for 20 minutes, clamped them to the jig and carefully and quickly bent them to shape. I allowed them to dry overnight and as expected I had one failure, but the four turned out fine.

I drilled 1/8″ holes in the distaff at the proper angles and spring the ribs into position. I will glue them in place with hide glue.

No finish on this piece, still have the pitman to finish. This wheel will be for sale when it is completed.

These are the traditional pigments from the nineteenth century and earlier, zinc oxide is substituted for white lead, as some people won’t allow the sale of lead for some reason.

All natural earth pigments ground 900 fine, they are non-fugative and will not fade. They are compatable with any medium: linseed oil and turpentine, shellac or spirit based varnish, oil based varnish [to make enamel], and water based finishes such as gum arabic or for distemper [hide glue size], etc.

Five one ounce (by weight) glass jars with metal lids, they are available here.

October 7, 2014

First of all I want to let everyone know everything is fine here, because I haven’t posted recently I have been receiving a lot of inquiries. I have been busy finishing up my next book on Spinning Wheel Repair.

Here is a mock up of the hand set type title page, still in need some adjustment, it is being done by a friend. The forward was written by a friend. I am having the cover art finished up by another friend and one more technical part being done by another friend, thank goodness for friends.

The book will be out in time for the holidays, but I am thinking of taking orders earlier.

August 21, 2014

This is a maiden from a Canadian Production Wheel and had been previously repaired. It was repaired with hide glue but the small bamboo skewer just wasn’t big enough to reinforce the joint.

I had to remove a nail holding the stub of the tenon on the end of the off-side maiden. Instead of making a new maiden, I decided to use a shouldered tenon and make it match the original. With the nail removed I could remove the stub tenon.

I cut the maiden off flush at the shoulder for the end of the maiden, then drilled a 1/4″ twist auger and then enlarged it with a 3/8″ duck bill spoon bit. I fit the new birch tenon into the hole, applied hide glue and clamped it together.

I also drilled a hole with a gimlet bit for the wedge and made a new one of birch to match the original

The next day I applied pigmented shellac to match the original finish on the parts exposed. The customer was happy.

August 17, 2014

A friend of mine showed me a bottle of Franklin/Titebond Liquid Hide Glue with an old expiration date and he thought it was still good. I looked at the date and it was 7-01 and I thought there was no way it was any good. So I did the finger/thumb test and sure enough it exhibited ‘legging’ or ‘cottoning’ indicating it was still good.

So the following day I conducted the only sanction test for testing the usefullness of liquid hide glue, a bead of glue on paper, cooked in a 150 degree [F] oven for 15 to 20 minutes and allowed to cool. To my surprise it cracked indicating it was still good.

It had not been stored in special conditions although the shop never got real hot. Good idea to test before you throw it away.

August 8, 2014

A friend for whom I have done repairs on spinning wheels brought me a loom she had got from India made of teak. The problem was that it would not lock adequately into the upright position. I examined the loom and determined that the slotted machine screws just spun as the wingnuts were tightened.

The loom was actually quite well made, except for the white plastic parts, but they just couldn’t or didn’t figure out all of the details. So I decided that two of the four machine screws in question could be replaced with simple carriage bolts. I used a square file to make the bolt go into the hole without splitting the wood, and that worked out fine.

However the other two machine screws could not be replaced with ordinary carriage bolts, so I had master blacksmith Mark Schramm weld on tabs on both sides of the square top of the carriage bolts. I had to remove one of the shed spacers in order to remove the old screws and insert the new tabbed carriage bolts.

Once they were in place I repositioned the spacers in the proper location, put it back together and low and behold it works. And the happy customer brought me this hand spun dishtowel that she had made on the loom. Thank you.

July 31, 2014

Eight and 1/2 inches long, 4 3/16 inches wide, and 2 3/16 inches thick, plus or minus a bit as it is 300 years old. Sent to me by my friend Sir William from the East coast as an ingredient for an old recipe for cutler’s cement that calls for brick dust.

It is a very hard brick and if you look closely you can see the shells from the lime making process in the matrix of the brick. The brick weighs 5 pounds. Seems a shame to grind it up, but it will give me a chance to test out my new cast iron mortar and pestle, and there apprently are more available.

I will report the results of the cutler’s cement recipe trials as they happen.